Use parallels with or without bootcamp. Differences?

Hi all,

I am newbie in mac world with my new MBP. I have always use windows and I still need to use it for work, however I dont know which is the best way to do it.
I have read that it is possible to use the bootcamp windows installation on parallels however this appears to have some restrictions ( cant be paused as an example http://kb.parallels.com/112941 ). On the other hand, using the same version makes the organization of work much easier

I believe that the best way is to have bootcamp installed so in case that I need better results I directly start bootcamp, however, i dont know if this has any other disadvatages .

What do you think?

 

Hi Rodrigo4. Virtualization has its limitations, and those limitations apply to Parallels Desktop as well (since it's basically an emulator). If you want to play it safe and have a boot camp installation too on your Mac, then the best way to go about it is this: 1.) Ensure there's plenty of disk space on your Mac (at least 500 GB in total). 2.) Import your boot camp installation into a standalone virtual machine (so changes done within the virtual Windows will not reflect within the boot camp Windows). 3.) Use the virtual machine for main purposes and have the boot camp as a backup (or for utilizing certain functions that work best in real Windows PC's).

 

Thanx for your supoort.

The software I use make changes so is not efficient for me to run the bootcamp windows, work on it and then dont have those changes in the virtualization, or vice versa
This is why I wonder what are the limitations/disadvantages of having a bootcamp windows and be able to virtualize trough parallels.
In a 2013 document that I found I saw some, but i dont know if those are updated... especially for the function that allows you tu run just a especific software directly from the mac ( cant remember the name of this function ... coherence mode?) or if comsumes more cpu ussage or battery...

Thanx

 

No limitations whatsoever other than the ones listed in the article mentioned in your initial post. You can run a virtual machine based directly on the boot camp, so changes done in Parallels/Windows will reflect in boot camp Windows.

Yes, it's Coherence mode. This function is pretty generic, though, and not confined to boot camp virtual machines.

Not necessarily. A boot camp virtual machine takes up no more resources than standard/usual/expected levels.